TYFP

So much information has been released since the media embargo was lifted on the 13th, that many people have yet to fully read or watch all of it. I’d like to note some of the biggest takeaways however, and talk a bit about my feelings on the event.

I agree with Bellular’s observation that it was a massive showing for Yoshida, the dev team, and the game itself. FFXIV continually shows that it excels in terms of player engagement, developer transparency, and execution of its releases.

Some comparisons to remember: the developer team, largely led through its friendship between the players and developers and the cult of personality surrounding Naoki Yoshida the community as a whole had a complete flip in opinion in 2018 after the leaked release of critical information regarding the upcoming Shadowbringers expansion. Yoshida made a brief statement about the leaks having a negative effect on the developers who had planned surprises for the fans; and the fan’s immediately turned on the leakers with such haste the account has disappeared. People who leaked very minor information from this years media tour, specifically just ability descriptions, were so ridiculed for the breach of trust with the trusted and beloved development team that the information was largely scrubbed from social media by fans who two years ago were hungry for leaks of information. 

Final Fantasy XIV is the only MMO that repeatedly turns media embargos into celebrations, and they do it every two years.

The amount of time put into preparing for and conducting the interviews and answering the questions of professional media outlets and content creators was a multiple day ordeal and at no point did Yoshida or his translator appear to tire or show any signs of discomfort.

I put out a video at the beginning of last year discussing fan festivals and the likelihood of the 2020 fan festival being an online event. I fully expected a couple shorter streams along with the traditional 14 hour stream to mimic the keynote address, led by the release of official trailers. In a simple way you could say that yes that’s what was released, but led by a passionate team; it was everything from in person fan festivals. There were performances from Soken and multiple other musical artists, some goofy, some were memes, and there was a full blown Primals concert. There were panels, special guests, and more. And like fan festivals past, it led up to the media tour and the final live letters, just before the launch of an expansion.

On November 5th, the final live letter before Endwalker will be streamed and topics will include system updates, crafting and gathering information, and the new pvp system (which I’m hella stoked for). Two weeks after that Endwalker will be in early release. Myself, like thousands of others, have been getting hyped up on all the videos out, especially the videos showing off the new boss themes. 

Once again, Yoshida and crew have crafted media and marketing to build up what more resembles a convention or celebration than a game release, and without a doubt the release of Endwalker will meet the lofty expectations the players have.